Callas

I am slowly working through my collection of 'artist albums'.

Let it be said that Maria Callas was the greatest female singer of the 20th Century. Anybody with a penchant for collecting compilations in general and artist albums, of singers in particular, cannot really be without a Callas album. This one is the Very Best Of...

However, La Callas is also an acquired taste. I am not totally sure that I have acquired that taste. On opera newsgroups and forums she is the subject of more posts than almost any other singer. She was extraordinary - one of the first very first actor-singers, rather than the stand-and-deliver unbelievable school. Not that much visual evidence exists of her performances - the only opera on film is Act 2 from Tosca.

But you really have to listen to her to hear technique. To hear why the search for the 'new Callas' is endless and ongoing. But I wonder how much of her fame 27 after her death is about the disastrous relationship with Onassis, who dumped her the tragic Jackie. Oh you know it, all those Sixties icons.

There's a film out about her at the moment, Callas Forever. Rather mixed reviews. Some say that it's just Zeff's Opera Queen fantasy (Zeff is obsessed with Maria. Absolutely obsessed).

Just don't try listening to both CDs of the double set back-to-back.

Ducks, scared of a possible onslaught by Callas fans...